(201) Magazine Blogs

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

As has been widely expected since Dominic Moore was named as the Rangers’ nominee for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy in a vote of the New York Rangers’ chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers’ Association, he was named as one of three finalists this morning by the NHL.

Ex-Rangers Jaromir Jagr (Devils) and Manny Malhotra (Hurricanes) are the other two finalists.

All three perfectly exemplify what the award stands for: The NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey.

Here are the bios on all three players, as provided by the league:

- Moore, 33, returned to the NHL this season after taking a leave of absence from the League in the spring of 2012 in order to care for his wife, Katie, after she had been diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer.
Katie passed away at the age of 32 in January of 2013. Moore thereafter established the Katie Moore Foundation (katiemoore.org), dedicated to helping patients and families with rare cancers through research, advocacy
and community. He resumed his career as an integral part of a Rangers team that earned 96 points and a second-place finish in the Metropolitan Division.

- Jagr’s unwavering dedication to the game has allowed him to continue playing at high level when most players his age are retired. The Devils named the 42-year-old right wing team MVP in 2013-14 after he led the club
in assists (43), points (67), plus-minus (+16), game-winning goals (six) and shots (231). Admired throughout the League for his rigorous training regimen, Jagr credits working hard in practices to avoiding fatigue,
allowing him to stay fresh and maintain an advantage over opponents late in games.

- Malhotra, 33, was the Vancouver Canucks’ Masterton nominee in 2011-12 after returning from a serious eye injury suffered the season before. Refusing to believe his NHL career was over last fall, Malhotra signed a professional tryout agreement with the Charlotte Checkers, Carolina’s American Hockey League affiliate, on Oct. 3 and signed as a free agent with the Hurricanes four weeks later. He appeared in 69 regular-season games, assumed a leadership role in serving as an alternate captain and ranked second among all NHL players in face-off percentage (59.4%).
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About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.